Niner Noise
FanSided

2020 NFL Draft: 7-round 49ers mock going all offense

By Robert Morrison

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announces a draft pick by the San Francisco 49ers (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images)
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announces a draft pick by the San Francisco 49ers (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images) /
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Charlie Heck #67 North Carolina Tar Heels (Photo by Mark Brown/Getty Images)
Charlie Heck #67 North Carolina Tar Heels (Photo by Mark Brown/Getty Images) /

156. player. 838. . Offensive Tackle. Tar Heels . Charlie Heck

Unfortunately for the 49ers, Joe Staley isn’t going to play football forever.

The former first-round pick out of Central Michigan will be 36 when the season starts, and currently has two more seasons left on his contract, including the upcoming year, although the team could move on from him after 2020 with minimal cap repercussions.

The Niners made a small move toward their Staley-less future last season, drafting former Vanderbilt tackle Justin Skule with a sixth-round draft pick last season. Skule, who started eight games in 2019 in Staley’s absence via injury, will be fighting with newly re-signed tackle Shon Coleman for the 49ers swing tackle spot in 2020.

But that doesn’t mean the team is set at tackle moving forward and could be looking to add both competition or a young replacement for Coleman in this draft. If they don’t use a first-round selection to surprise people and take one of the top tackle prospects, it’s likely they’ll use another late-round slot to bolster the unit.

One option could be former North Carolina tackle Charlie Heck, who’s father Andy, now an NFL offensive line coach in Kansas City, was a first-round pick of the Seattle Seahawks out of Notre Dame in 1989, and went on to play 12 seasons in the NFL for Seattle, Chicago and Washington.

The younger Heck was a three-year starter at UNC, starting a right tackle as a sophomore and a junior, before moving to left tackle as a senior. He also played in eight games at right guard as a freshman.

Heck is a giant, standing at 6-foot-8 and weighing in a 311 pounds, but possesses pretty decent speed and athleticism for his size. That size often comes with a difficulty to get his pad level down, and Heck is no exception to this rule.

But the good news is the 49ers wouldn’t be asking him to come in a start right away. And depending on how the offseason went, he could even spend 2020 on the practice squad honing his skills.

Either way, it’s past time for the 49ers to be thinking about the future at left tackle. Maybe this former Tar Heel could be a heck of an option for San Francisco moving forward.